The biopharma and drug supply chain sectors outperformed the market last week, even as Trump administration officials pressed the president's blueprint to lower drug prices, with tough rhetoric for drugmakers and public shaming of pharmaceutical firms for supposedly blocking competition.

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The days of Wine and Roses is actually both the name of a film and a song. The film was bittersweet to say the least and it is hard to call the ending happy. The title refers to the love story of two alcoholics in the early 1960s. But the lyrics allow one to forget what the movie was all about. The director of the film was the well-known director Blake Edwards and the theme of the film was really an examination of the perils of alcoholism on two middle class lovers and their child. And it has nothing whatsoever that I can see with the outlook for Autodesk (NASDAQ:ADSK) except that the lyrics taken by themselves describe where I think this company is going.

The company reported the results for its fiscal Q2 after the market closed last Thursday and the shares appreciated 8% on Friday. In fact, ADSK shares have been a strong performer so far this year as investors have become more convinced that the company’s bu siness model transition is working well and the company will address the issue of bloated costs as well and will achieve the objectives of increasing growth and profitability over the longer term. This was obviously not a universal conclusion, and in the midst of writing this article, one brokerage, Mitsubishi, chose to downgrade the shares from Neutral to Underweight because of doubts by the analyst that the subscription model will be a demand driver. I’m not too sure the extent to which the analyst has been paying careful attention either to the results that Adobe has enjoyed with demand since it went to a cloud model or to the objectives of this transformation. All I can say at this point in the wake of the earnings release is that it had more positive proof points about the potential for new model subscriptions and no obvious failures in that regards, facts being inconvenient things in that regard. I do not think that anyone really expects that demand for the Autodesk so lutions will accelerate markedly because of the new business model, although that might happen. (The end of this article discusses, at least at one level, such a possibility.) On the other hand, subscription models, by their nature, will yield higher margins and more cash flow for companies – one can look at something as mundane as Aspen Tech (NASDAQ:AZPN) which simply switched from perpetual to subscription without any cloud to a rather amazing change in the company’s business model.

Over the past two decades we have seen many transformational deals in healthcare services. A large majority of them get off to difficult starts. But then there is the bifurcation. Some transactions continue to pressure the purchaser (Davita (DVA) and Healthcare Partners for example), while others reset the expectations and then reap significant long term benefits (CVS (CVS) and Caremark for example). The weaker outlook for the newly combined Envision was not entirely a surprise in light of the magnitude of the merger. The real question becomes does the management team fully understand the magnitude of the weakness, the drivers of the weakness and are those now included in guidance for the future. We are confident that the combined entity will generate cost synergies as well as revenue opportunities that were not available to either of the legacy entities. We believe that the remaining segments, after a portfolio review that is leading to expected divestitures, will be solid growth businesses. We simply acknowledge that the path to that higher earnings base may be volatile, and last night was the first bump in that road.

Range Resources (RRC) was upgraded to outperform at BMO. $44 price target The valuation is more attractive, as business fundamentals are improving, BMO said.

[By Matthew DiLallo]

According to a report by PLS, producers spent more than $23 billion locking up prime positions in the Permian Basin and another $7 billion on Mid-Continent acreage acquisitions. However, most of those were smaller deals, with the top transaction weighing in at $2.5 billion. Meanwhile, the Ark-La-Tex region near the Gulf Coast quietly tied for the second hottest M&A geography in the country, largely because of Range Resources (NYSE:RRC) acquisition of Memorial Resource Development. Range Resources paid $4.2 billion, which includes the assumption of debt, to gain a leading position in the Lower Cotton Valley region of Northern Louisiana. Not only is the play saturated with natural gas, but it’s also near the Gulf Coast, which is expected to see increased demand from new petrochemical and industrial complexes as well as LNG export facilities. In other words, Range Resources made a big bet on higher gas prices along the Gulf Coast.

Weatherford International plc (NYSE: WFT) saw a share 18.9% gain to $5.14 on Wednesday, and the 55.9 million shares was right at 2 times normal trading volume. Weatherford has a consensus analyst price target of $7.43 and a 52-week trading range of $3.73 to $11.14. The company has a total market cap of $5 billion.

[By Craig Jones]

Pete Najarian said that 10,000 contracts of the March 6 calls in Weatherford International Plc (NYSE: WFT) were traded early in the trading session for around $0.35. He has also bought the March 6 calls and he is going to hold them at least for three weeks. Weatherford International Plc spiked 7.21 percent on Tuesday.

[By Ben Levisohn]

Last night, Weatherford International (WFT) reported a smaller than expected loss and announcing an alliance with Nabors Industries (NBR)–and the news was celebrated by the market.

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No wonder: Weatherford reported a loss of 32 cents a share, less than the 34 cent loss analysts had predicted, on sales of $1.41 billion. Weatherford also said that it would team up with Nabors Industries to offer “integrated drilling solutions,” something we can only imagine is a response to consolidation in the oil-services space.

Can we be honest here? It was yet another Warren Buffett shareholder weekend. That meant another year of Twitter pics of journos sticking mics in front of Buffett's face while he walked a convention floor holding a Dilly bar, another year of interviews of Buffett shareholders that have held the

The biopharma and drug supply chain sectors outperformed the market last week, even as Trump administration officials pressed the president's blueprint to lower drug prices, with tough rhetoric for drugmakers and public shaming of pharmaceutical firms for supposedly blocking competition.

A federal judge on Tuesday approved the merger of AT&T (NYSE:T) and Time Warner (NYSE:TWX)after a six-week trial. While the decision will allow AT&T to move forward with its $85 billion acquisition, it will also have a much broader impact. The ruling opens the door for more massive corpor